April 15, 2025
Oklahoma House Committee on Appropriations and Budget
2300 N Lincoln Blvd.
Oklahoma City, OK 73105
Via email
Dear Chair Caldwell and Members of the Committee:
On behalf of Verified Voting, I submit these comments on Senate Bill No. 147. Verified Voting is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization whose mission is to strengthen democracy for all voters by promoting the responsible use of technology in elections. Since its founding by computer scientists in 2004, Verified Voting has promoted voter-verified paper ballots and routine, rigorous post-election audits to check the accuracy of computerized voting systems. We support this measure’s intent to create a statutory requirement for routine post-election audits in Oklahoma and also offer a suggestion in alignment with best practices.
Currently, the Secretary of the State Election Board has the authority to conduct post-election audits, but there is no requirement that audits be conducted. SB 147 would require that audits take place after general, primary, presidential primary, and runoff primary elections and would also grant the Secretary the authority to require audits after “any election.” Oklahoma already conducts post-election audits on a routine basis, so solidifying this practice in statute is both commonsense and a step forward for election security in the state.
A post-election audit is defined in the subcommittee substitute as “a manual or electronic examination of a limited number of ballots by a secretary of a county election board or other authorized election officials following an election.” We would suggest revising the definition of a post-election audit so that it requires a manual examination of paper ballots. (Electronic audit processes can be useful, but should not replace manually examining some of the physical paper ballots.) This change would reflect how Oklahoma currently conducts its audits and would also accord with best practices.
Experts agree that post-election audits should be conducted with a manual hand-to-eye examination of the paper ballots. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommend, “Audits of election outcomes should include manual examination of statistically appropriate samples of paper ballots cast (emphasis added).”[1]
Thank you for considering our comments. We would be pleased to provide any additional guidance as Oklahoma considers election audit legislation.
Respectfully submitted,
Chrissa LaPorte
Deputy Policy & Strategy Director
- 1 | National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25120.